Morning News Call - India, December 19

7 Min Read

(Morning News Call - India edition will not be published through the year-end
holiday season from December 24, 2018 to January 1, 2019. Normal service will
resume from January 2, 2019. Season’s Greetings and Happy New Year.)
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FACTORS TO WATCH
1:00 pm: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv
Kumar to release ‘Strategy for New India@75’ document in New Delhi.
GMF: LIVEWATCH - ECONOMY FOCUS
David Page, senior economist at AXA Investment Managers, joins us at 3:30 pm IST
to talk about the future of the economy going in to 2019 and how to access the
economic impact of uncertainty. To join the conversation, click on the link: here
Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asian Business Sentiment Survey 2018Q4
A very cautious optimism remains among Asian companies in the fourth quarter as
they wait to see whether there will be any breakthrough in a trade dispute
between the United States and China, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed. To
read more, click tmsnrt.rs/2S78LIB. Reuters reporter John Geddie will be
taking questions on the survey from 10:00 am IST in the Global Markets Forum
community chatroom. To join, please click bit.ly/1kTxdKD.
INDIA TOP NEWS
• SEBI chief laments slow pace of IPOs hitting market
The chief of India's capital market regulator on Tuesday expressed concerns
about the slow pace of initial public offerings hitting the market despite
approval for filings worth around $8.43 billion.
• U.S.-based Carlyle seeks to double stake in PNB Housing - report
U.S-based private equity firm Carlyle Group is looking to double its stake in
Indian housing finance company PNB Housing Finance, Bloomberg Quint reported on
Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
• Ola to invest $100 million in Indian scooter sharing startup Vogo
Indian ride-hailing firm Ola will invest $100 million in Vogo, a domestic
scooter sharing start-up, and add the company's fleet of two-wheelers to the Ola
app to broaden the range of vehicles it offers, the companies said in a joint
statement on Tuesday.
• Regulator says Reuters report on J&J baby powder "under consideration"
India's federal drug regulator said on Tuesday a Reuters report that Johnson &
Johnson knew for decades that cancer-causing asbestos lurked in its baby powder
was "under consideration".
• Kenya's Airtel gains mobile share in third quarter, Safaricom slips
Kenyan telecom operator Airtel, a unit of India's Bharti Airtel, slightly
increased its mobile subscription market share in the third quarter, while rival
Safaricom's fell, an official report showed on Tuesday.
GLOBAL TOP NEWS
• SoftBank Corp suffers rare Japan debut drop after record IPO
SoftBank Corp shares slumped more than 10 percent in their debut, as investor
appetite for Japan's biggest ever IPO was hurt by a recent major service outage
at the telecoms operator and worries over its exposure to Chinese telecom gear
maker Huawei.
• Japan exports slow to crawl on global slowdown, trade tensions
Japan's export growth slowed to a crawl in November as shipments to the United
States and China weakened sharply, in a sign slowing external demand and a
Sino-U.S. trade dispute may leave the economy underpowered over the next year.
• British government to activate full 'no-deal' Brexit preparations
The British government said on Tuesday it would implement plans for a no-deal
Brexit in full and begin telling businesses and citizens to prepare for the risk
of leaving the European Union without an agreement.
LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK
(As reported by NewsRise)
• SGX Nifty nearest-month futures were trading up 0.4 percent at 10,996.50,
from its previous close.
• The Indian rupee is expected to open higher against the dollar after Brent
crude plunged to its lowest in more than a year.
• Indian government bonds will likely rise in early trade, after the central
bank announced a higher-than-expected open market purchase of notes scheduled
for the next few weeks, while a consistent fall in crude oil prices also aided
investor sentiment. The yield on the benchmark 7.17 percent bond maturing in
2028 is likely to trade in a 7.28 percent-7.35 percent band today, a dealer with
a state-run bank said.
GLOBAL MARKETS
• The benchmark S&P 500 stock index ended little changed in a choppy trading
session on Tuesday as the possibility of a partial U.S. government shutdown
raised investor jitters ahead of a highly anticipated meeting of the Federal
Reserve.
• Asian share markets played second string to bonds as a spectacular fall in
the price of oil spurred speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve might be done with
tightening after its policy meeting later in the session.
• The dollar languished close to one-week lows as investors wagered the
Federal Reserve would slow the pace of U.S. monetary tightening after its
keenly-watched policy meeting later in the day.
• U.S. Treasury prices gained on Tuesday a day before the Federal Reserve’s
highly anticipated interest rate decision from its two-day meeting is announced.
• U.S. oil prices rose to claw back part of their more than 5 percent losses
from the previous session, with worries about oversupply and a slowing global
economy keeping markets under pressure.
• Gold scaled a more than five-month peak before erasing all the gains to
trade steady as investors awaited the conclusion of a two-day policy meeting of
the U.S. Federal Reserve for clues on the pace of monetary tightening next year.
CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT
PNDF spot 70.86/70.89 December 18 $20.61 mln $28.53 mln
10-yr bond yield 7.35 pct Month-to-date $374.75 mln $457.04 mln
Year-to-date -$4.68 bln -$6.69 bln
For additional data:
India govt bond market volumes
Stock market reports
Non-deliverable forwards data
Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD]
Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT]
Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN]
($1 = 70.34 Indian rupees)
(Compiled by Avina Ajit in Bengaluru)